Grief
by fafaaf61
Summary: Professor Layton as he experiences the five stages of grief after Claire's death.


_Denial_

"Hershel, I…"

"Hmmm, ah, Clark this is a surprise." responded the professor.

The man was currently reading a newspaper and sipping tea. He looked at his friend with a mildly surprised yet welcome face.

"What brings you here today, Clark?" the professor asked.

Clark sighed before responding "I came here… to apologize… for your loss."

The professor looked at Clark, puzzled

"Loss?" he said, "what loss?"

"For… Claire's death Hershel, I… came to apologize for her death." Clark solemnly responded.

The professor put down his tea and looked at his friend sternly before replying "If this is a joke Clark, it's not funny. Claire isn't dead; she merely… left, on a trip. She'll be back soon."

Clark walked over to the man and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Hershel, Claire's gone, please just accept it. It pains me to see you in such a state."

"No," the poor man whispered, "No, she's not dead Clark."

Clark, seeing that the situation was hopeless he simply sighed and walked to the door.

He couldn't stand to see anyone, especially his dear friend, in such a state of denial.

_Anger_

The man crumpled the newspaper up and threw it on the ground. He then proceeded to slam his fist on the table.

These actions attracted much attention in the crowded library but he certainly didn't care.

_Why? _The top hatted man thought to himself. _I, I just want to know the truth but there is absolutely nothing in the media. It's almost as if the event never occurred._

A kindly old librarian came over to ask if anything was wrong. He angrily responded for her to go away. That scared her away.

The professor started sobbing at the desk. Everybody was looking, but he didn't care. He only thought to himself: _Why Claire, why did you have to go._

At that moment many emotions were flowing through him such as sadness and regret. However, the most powerful emotion that he felt at that moment was _anger._

He was angry, angry at the world for making him lose so much.

In the back of his mind there was a faint memory of Claire saying: "A true gentleman must never be consumed by his own anger."

_Bargaining_

When Luke's future counterpart had revealed what his own counterpart was planning he was surprised although he did well to hide it.

In truth, he knew exactly what his future counterpart was planning to do, exactly what time he wanted to set the time machine to.

_He wants to save her from that explosion._

He was now conflicted, the logical part of him knew that his future self had to be stopped but part of him wanted the time machine to actually work.

Perhaps, just perhaps he may do some bargaining to have the time machine work and to save Claire.

_Sadness_

"_Goodbye"_

Those were the last words spoken by Claire before she departed in that alleyway. Only moments afterwards did he hear Luke mutter "She's gone."

He turned away, he didn't want to see if it was true or not.

He felt tears starting to form in his eyes. He had lost his love again.

He thought for a moment about all he had lost, his birth family, his sweetheart, his assistant, and now he had lost his beloved yet another time.

He could hold it in no longer. Tears started flowing down the good professor's face.

He took off his hat, that hat that represented the love between him and Claire, and looked at the sky with sadness in those deep, dark, round eyes.

_Acceptance_

The professor smiled as he put down Luke's letter.

_Another mystery, eh, _He thought to himself as he looked out the window.

He stood up and walked to the back of his room to get his hat.

The events of the time machine were still fresh in his mind. The loss of his love was still burned in his memory.

He would still feel sadness, he would always feel sadness, but that didn't mean he couldn't move on.

He smiled as he put on his top hat, remembering Claire's last words.

"Perhaps today will be the beginning of a new journey, a journey to put the past behind me so I can make a new unwound future." he mused to himself.

Yes his Sadness was still there but he hoped one day that he would finally be able of accept the love of his beloved and forge a new life for himself.

**So, this is my second attempt at writing a story. So this entails how Professor Layton faced the five stages of grief after Claire's death. **

**On an unrelated note is it just me or are the locations of the eggs in PL6 also based on the five stages of grief.**

**Denial=Monsinnia (despite the fact that the adults are all asleep and in danger the children save Umid are all fine and continue to share puzzles and play as if nothing happened)**

**Anger=Torrido (The people hatred of Ol' Red)**

**Bargaining=Hoogland (They're trying to trade off the brides to please the dragonlord)**

**Sadness=Phong Gi (The chief will not laugh almost as if he is in a deep depression)**

**Acceptance=San Grio (The people are always accepting and happy) **


End file.
